Forbes: 'The Scam Of Olive Oil' "Here's the hard truth: the olive oil in your pantry, the one you bought for its health benefits and for some sliver of the seductive Mediterranean lifestyle, is most likely a scam.

A scam, meaning it probably contains less actual olive oil than you'd ever imagine. A scam, meaning it's likely been mixed with colorants and other less expensive oils like sunflower-seed oil. A scam, meaning you really have not been getting what you paid for."

The best seller "Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil" is a nonfiction book by American author Tom Mueller.

Mr. Mueller exposes the inner workings of the olive oil industry, which has fallen prey to hi-tech, industry-wide fraud. Authentic extra-virgin olive oil, he says, takes a lot of time, expense, and labor to make. On the flip side, it's quick, cheap, and easy to doctor it.

NPR: Olive Oil's 'Scandalous' Fraud. "The bottles labeled 'extra-virgin olive oil' on supermarket shelves have been adulterated."New Yorker:"Most of the bottles labeled 'extra-virgin olive oil' on supermarket shelves have been adulterated and shouldn't be classified as extra-virgin."

60 Minutes: Mafia Control of Olive Oil the Topic of '60 Minutes' Report. "The Olive Oil Scam: If 80% Is Fake, Why Do You Keep Buying It?"

"It's reliably reported that 80% of the Italian olive oil on the market is fraudulent. Some believe that the bigger problem is poor quality olive oil, deliberately mislabeled as virgin or extra virgin. In any case, it's likely that when you buy olive oil, you're not buying what it says on the label."

New York Times: "Much of the extra virgin Italian olive oil flooding the world's market shelves is neither Italian, nor virgin," the New York Times warns.

"So unless you bought it directly from a producer or a certified distributor, the olive oil in your kitchen marked 'Italian extra virgin' is very probably a fake. Either it's low quality falsely marked as virgin or extra-virgin - and not even from Italy - or it's been mixed with other oils of dubious provenance. At worst, it's not olive oil at all but a vegetable oil disguised with coloring and aroma.

Yet, you bought it despite the fact that its low price should have tipped you off."